Understand Card Connection Issues
Understand Card Connection Issues
Expensify establishes a secure connection with your bank to import card transactions. If Expensify is unable to establish a connection with your bank, or the connection is established but later breaks, new transactions stop importing.
The cause can range from a bank authentication requirement to a temporary bank outage or a change to the account itself. Understanding where the connection is failing can help you find the right troubleshooting steps.
This applies to personal cards that members manage in Wallet and company cards that workspace admins and card admins manage under Company cards.
Why card connection issues occur
A card connection depends on your bank authorizing Expensify to access eligible cards or accounts. The connection may require attention when:
- Your bank requires additional authentication or an action in its portal.
- Your bank’s authorization expires.
- Your online banking credentials or account numbers change.
- The bank changes or stops supporting the connection method.
- The bank is temporarily unavailable.
When you first connect a card, these issues can prevent Expensify from establishing the connection. After a card is connected, they can interrupt transaction imports until the connection is restored.
What it means when a card connection needs reauthentication
A connection that needs reauthentication is paused because your bank requires you to authorize Expensify again. This commonly happens when the bank’s authorization expires and does not mean the connection itself has failed.
Once the connection is reauthenticated, Expensify can resume importing transactions.
Learn how to reauthenticate a card connection.
What it means when a card connection is broken
A broken connection means Expensify can no longer retrieve transactions through the existing connection. This may result from changed credentials, changes to the card or account, a bank-side issue, or a change in the connection method supported by the bank.
Resolving a broken connection may require reconnecting the account, reassigning company cards, using another available connection method, or waiting for the bank to resolve an issue.
Learn how to fix a card connection error.
What it means when you see a temporary bank issue
Not every card connection message means the feed is broken. When your bank returns a temporary error, Expensify holds the expense and shows this message on it instead:
“Can’t auto-match receipt due to a temporary bank issue. Please try again later.”
This message means the bank couldn’t be reached right now, not that the card feed needs reconnecting.
- Do not reconnect the card feed or choose Fix card. The connection is still valid.
- No workspace admin, card admin, or member action is required.
- Expensify retries automatically, and the message clears once the transaction imports and matches the receipt.
Both members and workspace admins see this message on the expense and in the expense report header, whether the card is a company card or a personal card.
If the same expense still shows the message after several days, check the card feed for a broken connection message and follow Fix a Card Connection Error, or contact Concierge.
Where card connection issues appear
When an existing connection needs attention, Expensify surfaces the issue in a few places:
- A notification appears in the Time Sensitive section on Home.
- A red dot appears on the affected card or feed, with a message describing the problem and a Fix action.
- For company card feeds, Concierge also posts a message in the #admins room.
The message indicates whether the connection needs to be reauthenticated or is broken, and directs you toward the appropriate action.
These reminders appear while the connection has recently broken. If a company card feed has gone 90 days or more without a successful sync, the Time Sensitive notification on Home and the red dot on the workspace row stop showing. For direct (bank-connected) feeds, the “Card feed connection is broken” banner remains on the Company cards page, so a workspace admin or card admin can still reconnect the feed at any time.
What happens while a connection has an issue
New card transactions stop importing while the connection needs attention.
Receipt-scanned expenses may also show a broken connection violation while Expensify waits for the corresponding card transactions to import. Once the connection is restored and the transactions import, Expensify can match them with the receipts.
FAQ
Why did my card transactions stop importing?
Transactions stop importing when Expensify can no longer retrieve them through the card connection. Your bank may require you to authorize the connection again, the connection may be broken, or the bank may be temporarily unavailable.
Will missing transactions import after the connection is restored?
Once the connection is restored, Expensify resumes importing available transactions from the bank. The transactions imported may depend on the bank and the timeframe it makes available.
Why does my receipt show a broken connection violation?
Expensify may be waiting for a card transaction to import so it can match the transaction with the receipt. The violation remains while the connection prevents that transaction from importing.
Can I submit an expense before the connection is restored?
If the expense must move forward immediately, you can mark it as cash and submit it without waiting for the card transaction.
What should I do if a commercial card feed stops importing transactions?
Commercial card feeds rarely experience connection errors because the bank maintains the feed. If transactions stop importing from a commercial card feed, contact Concierge for help.
Why did the Home notification and workspace red dot disappear while the feed is still broken?
If a company card feed has gone 90 days or more without a successful sync, Expensify stops showing the proactive reminders — the Time Sensitive notification on Home and the red dot on the workspace row. For direct (bank-connected) feeds, the “Card feed connection is broken” banner stays on the Company cards page, so a workspace admin or card admin can still reconnect the feed and clear the error whenever they’re ready.
Why does my expense say “Can’t auto-match receipt due to a temporary bank issue”?
Your bank returned a temporary error, so Expensify couldn’t pull the card transaction to match against the receipt. The card feed is not broken, so there’s nothing to reconnect. Expensify retries automatically and the message clears once the transaction imports.
